61% office-goers want commute time to be included in office hours

A workplace survey by International Workplace Group suggested that the businesses that do not have a flexible workspace policy risk, may lose their best employees.

New Delhi: From co-working spaces to the introduction of the work-from-home concept, Indian businesses may be slowly adapting to the millennial working style. However, that may not be enough, especially the Internet and social media savvy Gen Y joining the workforces soon.

If you thought your workplace was restrictive, you are not alone. A workplace survey by International Workplace Group (IWG) suggested that the businesses that do not have a flexible workspace policy risk, may lose their best employees.

According to the survey, "61 per cent office-goers from India believe that official working hours should include time spent on their journey to and from work. Also, 41% said commuting to/ from work is the part of the working day which they like the least."

And they aren't alone, in 2015, Europe's top court had ruled that companies must count employee work hours from the time they leave their homes for office, till the time return. As cities expand and workplaces get concentrated in locations away from city centres, such a scenario can benefit everyone.

A separate study had also confirmed that should Indian workplaces get flexible, the country can see great benefit with an estimated annual GVA increase of as much as 141 per cent.

With the start-up culture catching on in India and new disruptive ideas changing the face of work-culture, the young workforce realises that peace of mind is more important than a soul-sucking job. Among the 15,000 volunteers in the survey, about 49 per cent said that flexible working is so important for them that they would give it a higher priority than a more prestigious job role.

Now, that the workforce has spoken, it remains to be seen if the Indian businesses would pay heed to this since IWG stated that this could be the major reason why workplaces end up losing their best employees. Yes, employee-burnout is pretty real.